In an affluent part of Georgia state, where Ku Klux Klan once ruled the roost and racism was a way of life, an Indian-American woman is fighting an unlikely local leadership election — because she wanted to stand up to her “bully” Republican opponent and leave behind a better world for children.
Shuchita Patel, a Democrat, is running for Forsyth County Commissioner’s post in the November 3 mid-term elections. Just the fact that Patel, the US-born daughter of Indian immigrant parents, is running for office — against an opponent who has been elected unopposed for 16 years — is a reminder of how much Forsyth and indeed America have changed over decades. At stake on November 3 are all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, and 37 seats in the 100-member Senate.
Because of anger over broken promises, high cost of groceries, petrol, healthcare, and frustration with politics, most opinion polls are predicting that Trump’s Republican Party will lose control of the House of Representatives, and might even lose the Senate. But the mid-term elections are also a reminder of how deeply America is divided over the cult-like adulation for President Donald Trump on the one side and the near hatred for him on the other. The mid-term elections will determine the composition of the two-chamber Congress, which is akin to India’s parliament. Along with those polls, many states will also elect their governors as well as a host of local body leaders such as county commissioners and heads of school boards.
With just two days to go, she set out on Sunday morning to knock on doors of voters, reminding them that she is in the race.
Georgia is not one of them While the anger against the Trump administration is expected to turn many traditionally Republican states against the party. It remains solidly ruby red, the colour of the Republican Party. Still, Patel, an accountant by profession, believes she stands a good chance.
After all, she says, whichever party candidate gets elected, the goal of the commissioner remains the same: which roads to repair and which sports arena to upgrade, among others.
